The First Charter of Human Rights, By The Persian Emperor
Kourosh The Great Over 2700 Years Ago

"Power Corrupts, Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely"

Alzheimer & Mad Cow Disease

Killer Cows in a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The Non Toxic Times, The Seventh Generation Newsletter February 2004

Late last year, mad cow disease made the headlines again as yet another cow destined for the dinner table tested positive for the illness. But unlike previous cases, this cow was not in Europe or Canada, but in Washington State where it became the first officially reported bovine victim in America. To experts who have been following (and worrying about) mad cow disease for years, the only surprise was that it took so long for it to arrive. Given unsafe livestock industry practices, mad cow in the U.S. has been long overdue. The real question is how to best protect ourselves now that it’s here.

Mad cow disease is technically known as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). It’s just one member of a family of related diseases known as Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE). These diseases include the human form, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), and scrapie, which are found in sheep.

TSE is a progressive, incurable disease characterized by signs of ever increasing dementia and the appearance of sponge-like holes in the brain. In humans, CJD manifests itself with depression or psychosis, motor difficulties, unusual body sensations, and shortly before death, the loss of speech and movement abilities.

TSE is caused by infectious agents called prions (pronounced "pree-ons"). Prions are a type of protein and bit of a scientific mystery. They are, for example, found in large numbers in brain cells, where researchers assume their prevalence means they have some important purpose. What that purpose is we don’t yet know. What we do know is that prions very occasionally mutate from their normal harmless state into forms that are then able to cause the same mutation in nearby prions.

When that happens a chain reaction ensues. The initial altered prion mutates two others, which mutate four more, which mutate eight more, and so on. Eventually, large masses of these abnormally functioning proteins begin to form. Under the resulting onslaught, neurons are destroyed and holes in brain tissue begin to form as another case of TSE emerges.

TSE is unique to say the least. These prion-caused illnesses simply aren’t like any other kind in any way. Bacterial, viral and fungal infections all cause symptoms fairly soon after the initial infection occurs, and rally the immune system to battle. Mutated prions, on the other hand, appear to waltz right past the body’s defense system without provoking so much as a raised eyebrow.

Scientists also aren’t sure how alien prions are able to make their way from the food people eat to their brain tissue. And the incubation period of TSE diseases, a time span measured in years if not decades, is puzzling as well. To further complicate the picture, prions appear almost impossible to destroy. The typical chemical and heat sterilization methods used to deal with bacteria, viruses and fungi simply don’t work. Neither does freezing or irradiation.

TSE also has no cure or treatment. One of the few things we know about it is that it’s fatal. We also know it can be contracted by eating beef from infected cows. And we know that cows become infected in much the same way: by eating feed containing beef by-products obtained from other infected cows.

Food activists call this the cannibalism circuit. It’s a disturbing cycle in which normally vegetarian cattle are given livestock feed made from members of their own species and other animals. In response to concerns about this inherently unnatural practice, the USDA banned the feeding of beef by-products to cattle in 1997.

To further protect the public, the use of cattle brains, eyes, spinal cord and innards (the tissues most likely to contain prions) have also been banned from human foods. While these are positive first steps, enormous loopholes in the mad cow food safety net still exist.

Beef by-products continue to be fed to chickens, pigs and other livestock in the form of meat and bone meal, which is a euphemism for melted down slaughterhouse waste, blood and manure.

Over 18 million pounds of this meal are produced in the U.S. every day. In addition to the possibility that animals fed this mixture may be susceptible to TSE diseases themselves (lab tests, for example, have shown pigs to be potentially vulnerable), their own remains are often turned back into food for cattle. Thus, the cannibalism circuit persists. It simply has an extra link that prions can easily survive.

Cattle blood, a key prion carrier, is still fed back to cows in the form of blood proteins that are used to manufacture the milk substitutes employed to quickly wean newborn calves from their milk-producing mothers.

Only 20,000 of 35 million cattle slaughtered in the U.S. each year are tested for mad cow disease. In contrast, the European Union tests 25% of its cattle and Japan 100%. France alone tests more cows in a single week than the U.S. has in the past decade.

More disconcerting still is the issue of downer cows. These are cattle that for unknown reasons are unable to stand, a symptom of mad cow disease. According to various estimates there are between 195,000 and one million downer cows in the U.S. each year.

Until recently, most of these cows were ruled fit for human consumption and subsequently slaughtered without the detailed inspections needed to reveal the presence of BSE. The USDA banned the use of downer cows for human food only in December of last year, but they’re still used for meat and bone meal.

Glaring food safety gaps like these have caused many people to wonder why mad cow hasn’t appeared in the U.S. before, and many experts believe it has. They say we’ve just barbequed all the evidence. The fact that BSE can take a long time to manifest itself coupled with the facts that most cows slaughtered for human food are killed at a relatively young age and very few are ever tested has led some to suspect that it’s not that mad cow isn’t here, it’s just that it’s simply gone undetected on the way from the ranch to the plate.

Some in the medical community, in fact, think that many of the people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are actually victims of CJD. Indeed, a study of 46 Alzheimer’s patients at Yale University found that six actually had CJD not Alzheimer’s. Another study tested the brain tissue of 12 Alzheimer’s sufferers and discovered that three were misdiagnosed cases of CJD.

Other studies show that between 3% and 5% of those diagnosed with dementia have CJD. So while only a couple hundred official CJD cases are reported in the U.S. each year, the actual number may be far higher due to the many suspected diagnostic errors that are occurring.

The decision to eat beef, of course, is a personal one. While we do not encourage the consumption of meat and believe there are a number of significant ecological and health reasons to avoid it.

We understand that there are many people who do not want to banish meat from their diets entirely. For those who are not ready to become full time vegetarians and wish to continue to eat red meat, we offer these tips: Go organic.

By law, organic cattle cannot be fed animal by-products of any kind and must be raised exclusively on an organic vegetarian diet. Since BSE is transmitted via contaminated animal products, eating organic beef reduces the risk to almost nothing. (Note that spontaneous cases of TSE diseases can and do occur so the risk will never be zero.)

Kosher beef is also a better choice. Kosher cattle are not stunned with a blow to the head before being slaughtered. Since such blows can release potentially contaminated brain matter into the bloodstream of infected animals, kosher beef is somewhat safer.

Choose beef substitutes where possible. Although it may seem a tad too exotic for the typical meat and potatoes lover, meats like emu, ostrich and bison contain much less saturated fat than beef and are far healthier to eat.

In addition, many believe they offer a red meat flavor that’s even tastier than beef. As an added benefit, such livestock are typically raised using relatively sustainable methods that take far less of a toll on the environment than cattle ranching.